The Exchanges

Q That's awesome. Is it, are these pictures of your dog?

A Yeah, so that some of them are, um, we actually have doggy models. So we actually did photo shoots with doggy models. And then there's a lot of photos on there that are actually UGC content from customers. So we, um, as part of our influencer marketing strategy, we gifted to a lot of these, there's this whole world of doggy influencers. And specifically outdoor doggy influencers, where the, uh, the owner is usually a photographer, and they build a following with their dog, taking photos of their dog outdoors, and so our, our customer base is really that outdoorsy person with a dog, and that's probably what you're seeing there, a mix of the models and the, uh, yeah, the doggy influencers and customers.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, so that some of them are, um, we actually have doggy models.”

Q So how did you get your first customers? So you, you get the idea. I assume you manufactured the products and then now you got to sell them. Uh, and so it sounds like influencer marketing was the initial strategy or was it something else?

A Yeah, that, that was, The, the biggest channel that we focused on in the beginning. Um, and my wife who isn't here because she's on baby duty, of course, she was the, the co-founder in, in Wolf Republic. And she, um, she had experienced, she was working at the time for fashion swimwear brand and had influence, uh, experience with influencer marketing. And we created this ambassador program where we gifted products To these doggy influencers with a certain following in the space, and we were just gifting product to them. We weren't actually paying them any fees at that point. And then from that point, we, we didn't even ask them to post necessarily. They just started posting because they liked the product. And then we used that content. That was part of our deal with our ambassador program is we would use the content and then post it on our own social. And so we built up a social following primarily on Instagram of all these cool outdoor photos of these dogs, you know, on trails and beautiful photography from these different, uh, dog influencers and photographers. And that's really how we initially started growing the brand. Um, after that, so we, we started entering into different products. We added on leashes, collars, um, the camp bowl, uh, the first aid kits, things like that. All the things that, you know, an outdoor enthusiast would use with, you know, with their dog out o…

AI assessment note: “Yeah, that, that was, The, the biggest channel that we focused on in the beginning.”

Q an investment banker and he gave me just small tips and it made all the difference. So having someone even just as like a therapist, like that's just go to bed, Mike, just don't send that email. Just anyway. So what made you comfortable with the buyer? What, what about this individual made you feel like this was the person that was the right person to sell the business to?

A Yeah. The buyer, This buyer was, was great in that they had a lot of previous experience, um, within the industry, within, uh, pet goods, pet, uh, e-commerce and their skillset was also complimentary to our skillset. So my wife, both my wife and I, we, both of our, our fields are, we specialize in marketing and this buyer had more of a, um, product and, Um, you know, understood more of like the logistics, product fulfillment, uh, inventory planning, that side of the business. And so this buyer came in and the offer was a bit different too. We, the offer that we got from him, um, was actually an offer that wasn't, we were initially looking for, you know, an outright buyer that would just buy 100% of the company, but his offer Was unique. It wasn't what we were asking for, but his offer included, um, a percentage of equity that we would retain a small percentage, 15%. And we ended up going with that because we number one believed in the future of the brand with this new buyer and where he was going to take it. He had experience and, um, yeah, it was, it was good vibes all around. Um, it wasn't rushed. Really. And he was very helpful throughout the process too.

AI assessment note: “they had a lot of previous experience, um, within the industry”

Q That's, well, that's awesome to hear. So you, you, now you're at a point, you're going to sell the business you listed on, um, acquire.com. How did that process go? Like, give me kind of the, the good and the bad. How did the first, you know, two weeks of being on the marketplace go?

A Yeah, we, we did pretty quickly get, um, a number of inquiries and, and, uh, questions from potential buyers. Um, in the first couple of weeks, I would say one of the first things is we were thinking, you know, the interest that we were getting from these potential buyers, we were thinking, uh, maybe we should just jump on one of these because, You know, we have the baby coming in a couple of months and we're not going to have time to like go through this process before then. So we did, um, start talking to, uh, you know, both, um, firms that were interested in buying the company and then individual buyers. And we actually received an LOI that we didn't sign immediately. And we were thinking about signing it when we talked to this buyer and, um, it was close to our, our asking price. Um, and it was, um, you know, all, all these different things were lining up, but then we, we talked to one of the potential buyers, uh, was this VC shop, um, that was, you know, buying e-commerce brands. They would grow them in house, build them in house. That was their whole thing. And the M and a, uh, uh, director of merger and acquisitions for that small shop told us that we didn't meet, you know, the exact criteria that they were looking for, but he was open to giving us advice. Uh, in the process moving forward. So he kind of became, uh, a mentor, if you will, throughout the process and give …

AI assessment note: “we did pretty quickly get, um, a number of inquiries and, and, uh, questions”

Q just Can't get along, whatever it may be. Uh, it's so much easier when the person, you know, admires what you built. They love what you built. Uh, they say what they're going to do and same to you. Um, and that just makes the acquisition process like flow really nicely into closing. So now I want to know about, um, uh, the fun part, uh, due diligence. How's that?

A Yeah. Yeah. The due diligence, luckily, Brittany at her previous company, they went through an acquisition, a big acquisition from a large Fortune 500 company. So she was used to, you know, a very detailed due diligence process from going through that process in the past. So she already, you know, where they have like a data room and they spend months and months getting like all this information together and digging in. So we put together this We had this due diligence tracker, a list of things that we needed to grant access to. As Brittany put together this deck that had tons of information and, you know, on the financials, but also the opportunities within the brand and opportunities for growth moving forward. And so she put together this great presentation. We had this list where we were granting access to all the platforms, and it was actually fairly, fairly straightforward, the due diligence process. So that was Easier than I expected, for sure.

AI assessment note: “it was actually fairly, fairly straightforward, the due diligence process. So that was Easier”

Q you and Brittany, Jeff. Um, I'm happy for you. Um, is there any, I guess, um, you know, if you were to do this, um, all over again, in terms of, you know, building and selling a business and you just had to give advice to a new entrepreneur, look and do and accomplish what you did. What's going to be like two or three things you'd share with them?

A Yeah. I think the, the, Big thing, at least in the acquisition process is like you mentioned before, not being afraid of the growth opportunities, the places where you, you haven't been able to, you know, um, uh, you know, we really did well on the marketing side, but the product development side, like there was a lot of room to improve things there. So that's the, those are things that buyers like to see. Actually, it seems like investors, buyers don't like to come in and buy a perfect business. Cause there's not a lot of upside if the business is Is, is all perfect anyway. So they want to get a deal on, on buying a business that they can improve over time in certain areas. And then the, uh, other advice, um, I would say, ah, let me think for a second. I think, um, I think not trying to, not trying to do everything all at once. I think focus was a big learning thing for us. There was a period of time where, uh, we really branched out into a lot of different products Uh, maybe a bit too many all at once. And then we, you know, instead of just focusing on, on what had really worked really well, um, we, we started diving in and getting kind of like ADD with like, oh, we should do this. We should do this. We should do this. And then we had all of these different products being developed at different times that some of them didn't even come to fruition yet. So, um, they really not …

AI assessment note: “not being afraid of the growth opportunities... I think focus was a big learning thing”